ABSTRACT
To what extent is an American dream of economic mobility real, in particular for historically marginalized racial minorities? Asian Americans are a revealing group to study, in particular those with above-average levels of education and income. This chapter explains how they migrated to the United States and experience the white-collar workplace and small business entrepreneurship. It analyzes their hardships and successes within a context of racial capitalism. Rather than a story of either clear upward mobility or blocked opportunities, Asian Americans reveal how groups must navigate restrictions within racial capitalism. Asian Americans have economic achievements even as the American dream of promised economic mobility proves a false narrative. The point is not to deny that any achievement has taken place but to explain that mobility does not affirm an American dream and, instead, reveals how racial capitalism operates even for those who appear to have succeeded.
